Bigfoot (Sasquatch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the book Weird New England, Bigfoot sightings had also occurred in the swamp. The book contends that the creatures are generally calm, but that at one point in the 1970s, one went "haywire" killing pigs and sheep belonging to local farmers. Police with attack dogs searched the swamp for two days, but found no sign of the creature. The most recent reports of a sasquatch-like creature within the Bridgewater Triangle were during the summer of 2009. According to reports, State Police searched the area with K-9s for a "furry man beast or bear" and were unable to locate anything.

1975: Brockton. Traveling from East Bridgewater, you start on Pleasant, take the fork to the left, it goes down a slight slope a few houses on either side, then there's (or was) a clearing where the power lines went through - between 11 and midnight. The driver noticed a very large black mass in the middle of the road (just before the power lines). Thinking it's some huge trash bag or tarp, he decided to pull it out of the road. Slowed to a near stop and at 5-10 feet away from the object, a head lifts and stares at the driver - a bone-white face, no hair, mostly apelike, thick brow, wide jaw, no eyebrows. Guessing by the size of the black mass in the road, it had to be at least 7 feet tall, maybe even 8. The driver sped out of there. He indicated the location of the sighting as being where Pleasant became Plain St., between Carl and Sargents Way.
In the summer of 2002, a few friends were together when they claim to have seen what appeared to be a large man stand erect in the middle of a Bridgewater field moving toward them. The people drove away and haven't returned to that area.

Cryptozoological sightings are numerous and varied in the Bridgewater Triangle. In 1970, reports of a big-foot like, 7-foot tall hairy monster and its footprints instigated both the Bridgewater and Massachusetts State Police canine unit to conduct a search for a bear. However, neither man nor bear was ever found.

In 1978, paranormal researcher Joseph M. DeAndrade claims to have observed another such creature as it slowly walked into the brush of the Hockomock Swamp, about 200 yards from his location. He chronicled his sighting in his 1997 book, Passing Strange: True Tales of New England Hauntings and Horrors.



Taunton State Hospital

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to history, there have been ghostly sightings inside, outside and in the surrounding woods. Opened in 1854, the most notable patient was serial killer Jane Toppan (aka Jolly Jane), a nurse who confessed to 31 murders in 1901 by administering fatal doses of pain medication, she reportedly lay in bed with her victims as they died. Closed in 1975, the building fell into disrepair through neglect. In the early 2000s, a large anti-climb fence was erected around the building to prevent illegal entry. Massachusetts State Police have responded numerous times to reports of moaning, screaming, and banging noises coming from the woods that border the property.



Hornbine School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one-room Hornbine School, located in Rehoboth, is said to be haunted by its former inhabitants. Built in the 1840s, the school was in active use until 1937. However, visitors are allowed to visit the school on certain Sundays during the summer and by appointment. Over the years, visitors have reported hearing voices and other spectra in the school. There is no history of any traumatic events occurring here, that would explain the reports of spectral children. Some believe the spirits were awakened when the structure was renovated in 1968 to celebrate the town's anniversary

 

Red-headed Hitchhiker of 44

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a stretch along Route 44 in Rehoboth and Seekonk where the "red-headed hitchhiker" has become a phenomenon. Motorists have reported seeing a man with long, red hair and a full beard walking along the roadside, but when they stop to pick him up, the man disappears. Others have allegedly reported driving through the spirit, and even having picked him up before his disappearance. Part of the legend states that if you meet or see the red-headed hitchhiker of 44, you will be in an accident shortly thereafter.

Inquiries made to the Rehoboth Police Department are answered simply: "There is no such thing" or "It doesn't exist". According to police records in both Seekonk and Rehoboth, there is no history on this stretch of road (or it's general area) that would support these sightings.



Rehoboth Village Cemetery #8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Village Cemetery is located on Bay State Road at the corner of Pond Street. Many graves moved from other locations about town have been moved to this cemetery. These include the Lake Cemetery, the Kelton Family Yard and the Hiram Drown lot. A visit to this cemetery is not recommended for the squeamish. The cemetery is from the 17th century, but its most famous spiritual resident came along a couple of hundred years later. This is the site of several reported sightings of "Ephraim", an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, woman-beating, ghost. Ephraim, as he is known, is an old fellow that dresses in 19th century clothing. He has dark sockets instead of eyes, but it’s his behavior rather than his appearance which makes him stand out. Ephraim sneers at everyone, and he has a particular distaste for women. He yells vulgarities, makes obscene gestures, and pounds on car windows. Not even other ghosts are safe. One witness said she heard him yelling the name Catherine. She was scared, so she fled, but when she turned back she saw Ephraim kneeling over the ghost of a woman. Ephraim was beating her, and then they vanished.

 

Dighton Rock State Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the rock itself is not attached to anything paranormal, it is the land Dighton Rock State Park is upon and surrounds that freaks people out. Visitors and Berkley residents alike have reported for many years the intense feeling of being watched from every direction. The feeling is SO strong, that most Berkley residents will not go there, as it is eerie and creepy



Thunderbird of Easton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since 1971, several sightings of phenomenally large, black birds, with wingspans that stretched from 8 to 12 feet, have been reported as well. Coincidentally, the first of these reports originated from Bird Hill in Hockomock Swamp. In 1984, two of these avian creatures were allegedly seen fighting in mid-air.

Around 2 a.m. while driving home one summer night in 1971, a Norton Police Sergeant was confronted by a creature on a stretch of road known as Bird's Hill in Easton, MA. As he slowed toward the intersection (which is at the edge of the Hockomock Swamp), he was confronted by a tremendous winged creature over 6 feet tall with a wingspan of 8 to 12 feet standing in the middle of the street. The sergeant stopped his car and watched in amazement as the bird flew straight up and disappeared over the dark trees into the swamp. He reported the sighting to the Easton police. A patrol car searched the area but found nothing.

 

UFOs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What we call a UFO in modern times, a UFO was reported in this area in 1760. This is likely the first documented UFO report on the planet.

*Halloween 1908 marked another UFO sighting, and it was documented in local newspapers.

*In 1968, five people claimed that they saw a strange ball of light floating among the trees in a wooded part of Rehoboth. (If you're not familiar with the town of Rehoboth, most of it is wooded. This particular report wasn't specific in location)

*In the 1970's, UFO sightings were frequently reported to occur in different areas of the Bridgewater Triangle. In one 1976 report, two UFOs were seen landing along Route 44 near Taunton.

*In 1994, a Bridgewater Law Enforcement Officer reported seeing a triangular shaped craft with red and white lights.

*The town of Raynham frequently receives reports of glowing balls of light, floating over the ground at the local dog track.

*In 2002 around 1 am, little pulses of green and red lights were allegedly witnessed by a woman, her husband, and her brother. She states that the lights appeared to be coming off of one triangle-shaped red light and compared it to a Star Wars battle going on. In her claim, she checked with local sources (military, airport, and weather) to see if something came up on their radar (such as aircraft or weather balloons) to which the only answer given to her inquiry was it wasn't anything of theirs.

*In 2002 while visiting her parents' home, a former Berkley resident reported seeing a bright white light. The light was so bright, it lit the entire room she was in. Thinking it was a truck belonging to a friend who wanted to play a prank, she looked out the window and saw no vehicle in the driveway. She saw what appeared to be a ball of bright white light emanating from the wooded property across the street. The light moved around near the ground for several seconds and began to rise. As the ball of light got closer to the treetops, it disappeared and everything was dark again.

*About March 1 2004 around 3 am, a woman reports seeing a triangular-shaped object, with lights on its bottom-side, quietly flying close to her home. She went to bed and when she woke in the daylight, she looked up Stealth Bombers online and realized that wasn't what she saw. She searched UFO sightings and believes that is what she saw



Pukwudgies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pukwudgies are magical little people/creatures of the forest. According to Native American Lore, these magical creatures existed in the Freetown State Forest. In the Wampanoaug Tribe, pukwudgies are capricious and dangerous creatures who may play harmless tricks or even help a human neighbor, but are just as likely to steal children or commit deadly acts of sabotage. Their name literally means 'person of the wilderness' and they are usually considered to be spirits of the forest. In some traditions, they have a sweet smell and are associated with flowers. Pukwudgies have magical powers which vary from tribe to tribe but may include the ability to turn invisible, confuse people or make them forget things, are shape-shifters, and bring harm to trespassers in the forest.
 

Copicut Road/Copicut Woods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Wampanoag Indian language, Copicut means “deep, dark woods. The 5 miles of trails in the 516 acre “official” Copicut Woods reservation are generally wider double track that pass through the remnant of a 19th century farm.

October 2008: A man driving on Copicut Road to admire the remaining foliage around 6 pm saw something weird on the road ahead. He saw a large black ball-like object (round at the top but the part touching the road was flat). It was about the size of a beach ball and it was not shiny. He stopped the car about 20 feet from the object: it was in the middle of his lane. He opened the driver's door and got halfway out of the car just to see if there was any sound: there wasn't. As he got back in the car and was about to drive around the object, it began to vibrate loudly. The vibration caused the steering wheel to shake. The round top part of the object began to cave in on itself, then this beach ball sized object shrunk to the size of a football. He claims he got a tingly feeling in his hands and legs (similar to pins & needles feeling). He sat and watched it lift about half a foot off the ground and in a swooping motion, flew sideways above the tree line and disappeared.

Copicut Road travelers have reported a truck driver following them too closely and honking his horn, making wild motions with his arms. When you pull over to let the truck pass, the truck vanishes. The truck then disappears. The Mad Trucker of Copicut Road is reported by very few people, yet the legend continues to grow. There is no evidence of this Mad Trucker. It seems to have developed into "legend tripping" - more of the possibility of what CAN happen on a desolate road rather than what actually does.
 

Assonet Ledge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the opposite end of the forest, the Assonet Ledge has its own set of legends. The remote location has reportedly been the site of ghosts standing atop the ledge and leaping before disappearing. In a recent presentation in Dighton, John Brightman of New England Paranormal Research Group, reported that he broke down atop the ledge, later realizing a spirit had told him to "jump or leave." He is not alone in this claim.

There are reports that other paranormal researchers claim there is something evil in the granite that was quarried from this location: that the evil traveled to the buildings it was used to make. Some of those buildings were the old Taunton State Hospital, the Fall River Public Library and a government building in New York State. Local residents report seeing the Lady of the Ledge, who appears as a solid person and just disappears. Obviously, most who claim to have witnessed this fear she has fallen off the ledge. One thing is clear: the sightings are persistent. Many residents to the area believe that the area was cursed by members of the Wampanoag Tribe, as their chief had sold the land to European settlers without tribal consent.

There has been a few in the paranormal field who claim that President Ronald Reagan had an encounter with a UFO over the Assonet Ledge. During the 1980's a UFO began to follow Air Force One, thus prompting fighters to be scrambled. The mysterious light came out of the forest from the area of the Assonet ledge, and was stalking Air Force One.

Writer/Author/Paranormal Investigator Christopher Balzano claims that the Assonet Ledge is the most haunted spot in the Freetown State Forest.
 

Profile Rock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Profile Rock is in the Fall River-Freetown State Forest, (the largest forest in the state) and a Bridgewater Triangle landmark that has gained a paranormal reputation. Located in Freetown, the rock shows a clear portrait of a Native American face looking out from the stone. Long before Massachusetts colonists arrived, the Wampanoag people considered Profile Rock sacred. Local legends claim that Native American ghost dancers in warrior dress dance around Profile Rock. Some paranormal experts argue that there is a strong, negative energy that encompasses the forest and is the reason for strange happenings there.

On June 19 2019, Profile Rock was discovered to have been mysteriously destroyed. The grounds surrounding Profile Rock are closed to the pubic. Click here for the link to the online article.
 

Anawan Rock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Located in Hockomock Swamp along Route 44 in Rehoboth, Anawan Rock is named for Chief Anawan and is the site where Chief Anawan surrendered to the colonists, ending "King Phillip's War". Legend says that the angry spirits of Chief Anawan's warriors continue to haunt the area, starting spectral fires and "ghost dancing".

 

A Bevy of Things in A Single Night

"Autumn of 1985 in Bridgewater. While we were sitting there, looking out at the water, we could see directly across from us on the other side of the lake what appeared to be a huge bonfire with a large group of people "dancing" around it. Joe laughed and told me that when he was in high school, he and his buddies used to party over there and that there must be a huge party going on. He suggested we go check it out. We drove down 104 and turned down a side road that went around to the opposite bank from where we had been. The road was treacherous, not really suitable for a Mustang - but I was young and stupid and the ground was cold, so at least it wasn't muddy. It took us maybe 10 minutes to get from the parking lot to the empty sandy beach area where we'd seen the bonfire. When we arrived, there was nobody there. Not only was there nobody there, but there was no sign that anyone had been there at any recent time. We sat there for a few minutes, got out and walked along the shore trying to see if we could see flames reflecting off the water, knowing that if we weren't in the right spot we were at least damn close. We saw nothing. Well, nothing except some sort of strange "thing" in the water watching us. The only way I can describe the thing is a snakelike neck sticking up out of the water with a huge single eye on the end of it. Bizarre. That was enough for us. We got in the car and drove back the way we came and back to the parking lot on the other side...and there again was the bonfire we'd seen before - and I swear it was in the exact spot where we'd been. Joe later told me that one time when he was in high school, he and a friend had driven out to that same sandy beach area with some beer and sat there for hours drinking away. When they'd finish a beer, they'd toss the empty out the window. They both fell asleep and when they woke up the following morning and got out of the car to go to the bathroom, they said there was no sign of their empties...nor of any footprints on the sand from whomever had collected them."

"I believe I've also seen the "Birdman of Bridgewater" - but I do know that we have some huge Eagles in the area sometimes and what I saw, while it appeared to be humongous and darker than an Eagle, I saw for only a fleeting moment while I was driving on the Route 24 between W. Bridgewater and the 104 exit in Bridgewater. I do, however, know what I witnessed that night at the Nip and it was bizarre - from the non-existent bonfire to the weird-looking mutant thing in the water"

 

Hockomock Swamp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the center of the triangle is Hockomock Swamp, the largest swampland in New England, and one that is rich in animal, plant, and geologic diversity. The dense surroundings mean that it's a very difficulty place to navigate, which leads some to believe that certain creatures could lurk in the swamp undetected. The Wampanoag tribe gave the spot the name Hockomock, which means "place where spirits dwell, and Colonial settlers called it "Devil's Swamp." Some of the strange sightings reported here include various flying creatures and ghosts.

HISTORY:

The site of an 8,000-year-old Native American burial ground, when archaeologists opened the graves of Grassy Island, the red ochre within the tombs bubbled and then mysteriously disappeared. Photographs taken of the excavation would not develop. The swamp remains shrouded in superstition. Called, "the place where spirits dwell" by the Wampanoag Tribe of the Native American Algonquian nation, the Wampanoag avoided Hockomock Swamp when they weren't hunting and the area remains a place filled with foreboding. For thousands of years (dating as far back as 9,000 BC) the Hockomock Swamp area was home to the Wampanoag Indian Tribe. Throughout time, Native American tribal elders and members, have passed down stories - stories that although seem legend, were based on factual events. Prior to the colonists coming to the area, the tribal legends of the "Swamp Spirits" was already there. Not long after English colonists settled in the area, Chief Metacomet battled the colonists for 18 months, as the Wampanoag's were being pushed out of their native land. The battles became bloody at times, and it is in those areas (where the bloodiest battles occurred) where Hockomock Swamp has reported sightings of the paranormal/unusual. These sightings are of a Thunderbird, spook-lights, UFOs, and yes - even Bigfoot. Most of the Wampanoag tribe were driven out the area; those that weren't were killed in the battles.

CURRENT:

Hockomock Swamp and associated wetlands and water bodies comprise the largest vegetated freshwater wetland system in Massachusetts. The boundaries of the Hockomock Swamp include approximately 16,950 acres in the southeastern part of the state. The wetlands act as a huge water reservoir and serve as the headwaters for the Town River, which flows into the Taunton River. The wetlands and floodplains are connected hydrologically with an extensive underlying system of medium- and high-yield aquifers. The Hockomock Swamp is a vast natural and scenic area. Because of its size, it is a unique and irreplaceable wildlife habitat. It is also the location of at least 13 rare and endangered species. According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the archaeological sites in the vicinity of this wetland complex are known to span a period of 9000 years; the potential quality and significance of the archaeological resources are enormous. The MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW) owns approximately 5000 acres of the Hockomock Swamp, within all 6 communities (Bridgewater, Easton, Norton, Raynham, Taunton, West Bridgewater). The Hockomock Swamp Wildlife Management Area provides public access to the swamp and to several recreational areas. This area is popular for hunting, fishing, boating, canoeing, swimming, and for the observation and study of flora and fauna.

The Hockomock Swamp lies within the western section of Bridgewater Triangle and is the hub of many paranormal reports.

REPORTS:
*(exact area not recorded) A ghostly phantom appears in Hockomock Swamp near Route 138.

*Bridgewater: Two incidents experienced by one person, claiming both happened on subsequent days on east side of the swamp close to Rt. 24 and 106. The first night, just after dark an oppressive feeling & occasional sounds far behind him like footsteps on and off the road. The footsteps came within 20-30 feet. He cleared his throat and asked "Any luck?" The sounds stopped immediately. He walked toward where he last heard the noises and nothing was there. Kneeling down he listened for several minutes and as he was about to stand and make his way toward the parking area, the sounds started up again - sound like it was right in front of him. He could see nothing and as he began walking again, the sounds began again: he immediately assumed it was an echo. He noted that echoes usually get fainter over time: these sounds got louder the longer he remained (as if whatever was making those sounds was approaching). He made it onto the power lines and crossed, in hopes that the "thing" that whatever was behind him would show itself crossing the road. It didn't. The next day this same man found himself in the exact same area deer hunting. He waited until sunrise to enter, in hopes of finding tracks or something in the area where he'd heard the sounds. He found the tracks of his own boots (very distinctive track/pattern), but no other tracks were evident. After sunset, he found himself further into the area than intended so he began trekking to his parked car. Listening intently, he made it almost to the power lines without hearing anything but having a continual feeling of being watched. Making his way out along the power lines (a river passes under the road and drains into Lake Nippenicket), a geyser of water exploded upward as if someone had thrown a very large rock into the pooled water that was about 10 feet to his left.
 

Note: The above are only reported items; there is no physical proof of these claims​​

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